Floor cleaner

ABSTRACT

A floor cleaner comprising a rotating brush adapted to rotate in liaison with rollers supporting a housing onto the floor in a suitable manner, dust receivers disposed on the front and the rear side of said rotating brush respectively so as to receive the dust swept off from the floor by said rotating brush, and hindering members located over said dust receivers adapted to permit the dust to be introduced into said dust receivers but to prevent the dust from being drawn out to the outside again.

United States Patent 1 1 Kaburaki et al.

1451 Mar. 18, 1975 FLOOR CLEANER [75] Inventors: Yasuo Kaburaki; KiyoshiKobayashi, both of Nagareyama, Japan [73] Assignee: Hiroshi Hukuba,Nagareyama-shi,

Chiba-ken, Japan 22 Filed: Dec. 22, 1972 21 Appl. No.: 317,833

[52] US. Cl. 15/42 [51] Int. Cl A471 11/33 [58] Field of Search 15/41 R,41-48 [5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS l,097,833 5/1914Yochem 15/44 l,332,429 3/1920 Czechowicz 15/48 2,975,450 3/1961 15/48Fukuba ls/41 R 3,587,127 6/l97l Rosendall ..Q lS/48 3,628,211 12/1971Fukuba i 15/42 3,671.991 6/1972 Fukuba 15/41 R Primary Examiner-EdwardL. Roberts Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Woodhams, Blanchard and Flynn 57]ABSTRACT A floor cleaner comprising a rotating brush adapted to rotatein liaison with rollers supporting a housing onto the floor in asuitable manner, dust receivers disposed on the front and the rear sideof said rotating brush respectively so as to receive the dust swept offfrom the floor by said rotating brush, and hindering members locatedover said dust receivers adapted to permit the dust to be introducedinto said dust receivers but to prevent the dust from being drawn out tothe outside again.

5 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEU 1 8195 3.871 .047 saw 10F 2PATENTEB HAR I 81975 SHEET 2 OF 2 BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 1. Field ofthe Invention The present invention relates to a floor cleaner, and moreparticularly to a floor cleaner comprising a rotating brush adapted torotate in liaison with rollers supporting the housing so as to sweep offthe dust from the floor.

2. Description of the Prior Art The conventional floor cleaner of a wellknown type that sweeps off the dust from the floor into the dustreceiver by a rotating brush is usually provided with the teeth of combsin the upper shoulder portion of the rotating brush for the purpose ofcombing the brush to take away the dust adhering thereto so that thedust is deposited into a dust receiver.

However, when the dust consists of, for instance, bits of cotton, fallenhairs from the carpet made of hair material, and the like, the dust thusbrought into the dust receiver is rolled therein into clusters due tothe reciprocating motion of the floor cleaner during cleaning operationthereof, whereby the dust thus formed into clusters becomes adheres tothe rotating brush and is drawn out again from the dust receiver. Thisis a noticeable disadvantage of the conventional floor cleaner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is toprovide a floor cleaner eliminating the above-mentioned disadvantagetherefrom by provision of hindering members disposed over the dustreceivers with a suitable space from the bottom thereof, whereby saidhindering members serve to keep the dust apart from the rotating brushso as to prevent the dust from being drawn back again toward the outsideof the dust receiver, once the dust has been brought therein by therotating brush.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a floor cleanerincluding such hindering members that are provided with a plurality ofprojections projecting and opposing toward the bottom of the dustreceivers, said projections adapted to permit the dust to enter into thedust receiver quite easily without any interruption, meanwhile to serveto hold the dust securely deep into the dust receiver and prevent itfrom being drawn back out again with its interrupting effect, once thedust has been brought therein by the rotating brush.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a floor cleanerhaving hindering members obtained from bending a linear material in asuitable way for defining projections at a very cheap expense ofmanufacturing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of apreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the above embodiment takenalong a longitudinal line passing through the center portion thereof;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged plane view of the embodiment with the upperportion of the housing removed and illustrating how a rotating brushrotates in liaison with rollers;

FIG. 4 is a partially sectional view of the embodiment illustrating howthe hindering member is formed and how it is installed.

LII

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2,the reference numeral I denotes a housing provided with a bulged portionalong thelateral center line of the upper surface of the housing havinga cross-section defined into an arc-shape. In the front-end portion aswell as the rearend portion of the housing there is defined respectivelya pendant edge 2 extending downwardly and a side plate 3 is disposed onboth side-end portions of the housing.

In the inner side of the housing 1 there is a rotating brush 4, a pairof upwardly opening boxlike dust receivers 5, hindering members 6, andcombs 7, besides other essential subsidiary members.

The rotating brush 4 is positioned in the central portion of the housing1 being suspended rotatably by a shaft 8 disposed transversely betweenthe side plates 3 at a right angle to the direction in which the housing1 is to be moved during cleaning operation.

A pair of rollers 9 are fixedly secured to the shaft 8 in both endportions thereof and, as shown in FIG. 3, rollers 10 for use insupporting the housing 1 are brought into contact with said roller 9 oneach side thereof with a suitable driving pressure therebetween.

The dust receiver 5 is constructed in a form of a box having the bottomportion 12 provided with plural detents 11 which are formed as a sharpedge or shoulder as seen in FIG. 2 and a pair of side walls 13 disposedon both sides thereof. Said walls 13 are provided in one end portionthereof adjacent to the rotating brush 4 with an opening in which ashort pivot shaft 14 projecting inwardly from the inner side of the sideplate 3 is inserted with a rotating relation between the dust receiverand the short shaft. Said dust receivers 5 are located both on the frontand the rear side of the rotating brush 4, one on each side, to be seenas if said rotating brush 4 is held therebetween.

A free edge of each dust receiver is kept always forced into contactwith a packing 18 along the pendant edge 2 of the housing 1 by the forceof a wire spring 16 held between the spring stoppers l5 installed onother end of the dust receiver which spring 15 extends around the shaft8.

As seen in FIGS. 2 and 4, the hindering member 6 is constructed of alinear rodlike material and is bent at suitable intervals to define aplurality of V-shaped projections 119, and both end portions of saidmember 6 are bent at a right angle for provision of the engaging portion20 thereof to be inserted into an elongated groove 22 defined in afixture 21 provided on the side plate 3 of the housing 1, in order thatboth end portions of the hindering member 6 are fixedly secured to theside plates 3 of the housing 1.

Further, said hindering members 6 are disposed substantially in parallelwith the rotating brush 4 and over the bottom of the dust receivers 5,being suitably spaced therefrom and being installed slantly in such afashion that a plurality of projections 19 extend toward the detents 11.

On the arm 25 of a suspension yoke 24 hung oscillatably by a shaft 23,is disposed an elongated comb 7 in such a manner that the comb 7 thuspositioned on the arm 25 disposed on one side of the rotating brush 4faces oppositely relative to the comb disposed on the arm positioned onthe other side thereof and is able to comb the rotating brush at theshoulder portion thereof, said shaft 23 being suspended between the sideplates 3 of the housing 1.

In addition, the reference numerals 26, 27 and 28 denote a cornerbrush,a stopper and a handle, respectively. The stopper 27 is fixed to the endplates 3.

In the present invention, in reference to appended FIG. 2, rightwardmovement of the housing 1 causes the brush 4 to rotatecounter-clockwise, as shown by arrow A, to sweep away the fine dust onthe floor surface in the direction indicated by arrow B, so as to bedeposited within the right side receiver 5. The fibroid dust adhering tothe periphery of said rotating brush 4 is combed off by comb 7' which isin the position indicated by a solid line, whereupon the fibroid duststays on the upper surface 'of the comb 7' in the form of a cluster D1.

If the movement of the housing is then changed so as to be in theleftward direction, the brush in turn rotates clockwise in the directionindicated by the arrow C.

Due to the clockwise rotation of the brush 4, the combs 7 and 7' areinduced to change their inclination as seen in FIG 2 from the positionsindicated by by solid lines to the positions indicated by chained lines.In this case, contrary to the above, the fine dust on the floor is sweptaway in the direction indicated by arrow D and deposited within thereceiver 5'.

In the meantime, said dust cluster D1 moves rightwardly, namelyclockwise along with the periphery of the brush 4, as shown by thedotted arrow E, so as to be moved onto the upper surface of the comb 7,where it grows into a larger cluster D2 by being tangled with thefibroid dust newly combed off from the brush 4 by means of the comb 7.

Repetition of the reciprocating movement of the housing on the floorsurface results in growth of the cluster of fibroid dust until itbecomes large and heavy enough to drop from the upper surface of thecomb 7 or 7' into the receiver 5 or 5'. When the housing 1 movingleftwardly, the cluster of fibroid dust drops into the rightsidereceiver 5, while, when moving rightwardly, it drops into the leftsidereceiver 5'.

When the receiver 5 or 5 moves forward or backward, the cluster offibroid dust that has dropped into the receiver 5 or 5' also moves byitself, by virtue of the inertia thereof, relative to the receiverreversely to the direction in which the receiver is moving.

To be more precise, when the housing 1 moves leftwardly, the clusterofdust in the receiver 5 moves rightwardly, i.e., backwardly, relativeto the receiver and rolls over the gently slanted wall 11a of thedetents 11. However, when the housing moves rightwardly, the cluster ofdust is prevented from moving reversely relative to the receiver due tothe presence of the vertical wall 11b of said detents. As'to the clusterof dust in the receiver 5', everything goes on in a reverse manner tothe above.

Therefore, by repetition of reciprocating movement of the housing 1, thecluster of dust in the receiver 5 moves only rightwardly relativethereto to remain in the far rightside portion of the receiver 5, andthe cluster of dust in the receiver 5 moves only leftwardly relativethereto to remain in the far leftside portion of the receiver 5.

In this connection, when the cluster of dust is passing under thehindering member 6 or 6, it is still small enough to pass through thegap between the projections of the hindering member and the upper end ofthe detent.

After passing under the hindering member, then the cluster of dust ifformed in a bar-shape that is parallel with the rotating brush 4, bybeing tangled and jointed together with other clusters of dust whichhave deposited therein previously. Such a bar-shaped cluster of dustrolls on the bottom surface of the receiver 5 or 5 in accordance withthe reciprocating movement of the housing 1. However, it is preventedfrom rolling back toward the brush 4 due to the multiple projections 19of the hindering members 6 and 6, so that it stays within the receiver.

Discharging of the dust accumulated in the dust receiver 5 is executedby pushing the free end of the dust receiver 5 downwardly to counteractthe force of the wire spring 16 so as to swing downwardly said dustreceiver around the short pivot shaft 14, as shown in FIG. 2 by a brokenline, in order to make itself open outwardly. The outward swinging ofthe receiver 5 is limited by the stops 27. After discharging theaccumulated dust therefrom, the dust receiver 5 should be turned in thereverse direction in order that the free end thereof is brought againinto contact with the packing 18 by the force of the flat spring 16 forclosure thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. A floor cleaner, comprising:

housing means defining a downwardly opening compartment;

roller means rotatably supported on said housing means and adapted forrolling engagement with a support surface, such as a floor, for movablysupporting said housing means thereon;

brush means disposed within said compartment and rotatable in responseto rotation of said roller means for sweeping the dust off of saidsupport surface, said brush means including an elongated brush rotatablysupported on said housing means and extending transversely across saidcompartment in a direction substantially perpendicular to the directionin which said housing means is moved during a cleaning operation, saidrotating brush having a rotational axis which is substantially parallelto the rotational axes of said roller means; first and second dustreceiver means mounted on said housing means and positioned forreceiving therein the dust swept off of said surface by said rotatingbrush, said first and second dust receiver means each having an edgethereof positioned closely adjacent the periphery of said rotatingbrush, and said first and second dust receiver means being positioned onsubstantially diametrically opposite sides of said brush so that dustwill be deposited into either said first or second dust receiver meansdepending on the rotational direction of said brush; each of said dustreceiver means comprising an upwardly opening boxlike tray mounted onsaid housing means, said tray having one sidewall thereof positionedclosely adjacent the periphery of said brush, and one-way meansassociated with each said dust receiver means for permitting the dustdeposited within said receiver means to move in a direction away fromsaid brush in response to inertia caused by the back-and-forth movementof said housing means on said surface, said one-way means tending topreventthe dust within said receiver means from moving back towards saidbrush;

said one-way means including a sloped wall portion formed on the bottomof said tray and extending upwardly in a direction away from said brush,said sloped wall terminating in a substantially vertical wall whichprojects downwardly to form an abutment which tends to prevent the dustfrom moving backwardly towards the brush after the dust has passed oversaid sloped wall, said vertical wall being located between said onesidewall and the middle of said tray as measured between the front andrear ends thereof; and hindering means associated with each of said dustreceiver means for preventing the dust deposited therein from movingbackwardly out of said dust receiver means so as to again contact saidrotating brush, said hindering means including a hindering memberpositioned over each tray and disposed above said sloped wall in thevicinity of said vertical wall, said hindering member having a pluralityof projections which extend downwardly toward the bottom of said traybut are spaced upwardly therefrom to prevent the dust collected withinsaid tray from moving back towards said brush, said projections beingspaced from one another in a direction extending transversely acrosssaid compartment, the spacing between said projections enabling dust tomove therebetween when deposited into said tray by said brush, whereuponthe dust as deposited into said tray then contacts the dust previouslycollected within said tray to form a larger mass which is of substantialtransverse width so that said larger mass of dust is prevented by saidprojections from moving backwardly toward the brush. 2. A floor cleaneraccording to claim 1, further including first and second comb meansdisposed within said compartment and positioned for engagement with theperiphery of said brush for removing the dust therefrom, said first andsecond comb means being disposed on opposite sides of said brush andpositioned adjacent said one edge of said first and second dust receivermeans, respectively, the comb means associated with each dust receivermeans being positioned between said brush and the respective hinderingmember 3. A floor cleaner according to claim 2, wherein said comb meansassociated with the respective tray is spaced upwardly from the upperedge of said one sidewall whereby fine dust particles picked up by saidbrush will move over said one sidewall and beneath said comb means fordeposit into said tray, said comb means causing the fibrous dust to beremoved from the brush with said fibrous dust then being deposited intoone of said trays by passing over the top of one of said comb means.

4. A floor cleaner according to claim 1, wherein said hindering memberis disposed in substantial alignment with the upper edge of said slopedwall, and the lowermost point of said projections being spaced upwardlya relatively small distance above the upper edge of said sloped wall.

5. A floor cleaner according to claim 1, wherein said member by bendingsame.

l =l =l

1. A floor cleaner, comprising: housing means defining a downwardlyopening compartment; roller means rotatably supported on said housingmeans and adapted for rolling engagement with a support surface, such asa floor, for movably supporting said housing means thereon; brush meansdisposed within said compartment and rotatable in response to rotationof said roller means for sweeping the dust off of said support surface,said brush means including an elongated brush rotatably supported onsaid housing means and extending transversely across said compartment ina direction substantially perpendicular to the direction in which saidhousing means is moved during a cleaning operation, said rotating brushhaving a rotational axis which is substantially parallel to therotational axes of said roller means; first and second dust receivermeans mounted on said housing means and positioned for receiving thereinthe dust swept off of said surface by said rotating brush, said firstand second dust receiver means each having an edge thereof positionedclosely adjacent the periphery of said rotating brush, and said firstand second dust receiver means being positioned on substantiallydiametrically opposite sides of said brush so that dust will bedeposited into either said first or second dust receiver means dependingon the rotational direction of said brush; each of said dust receivermeans comprising an upwardly opening boxlike tray mounted on saidhousing means, said tray having one sidewall thereof positioned closelyadjacent the periphery of said brush, and one-way means associated witheach said dust receiver means for permitting the dust deposited withinsaid receiver means to move in a direction away from said brush inresponse to inertia caused by the back-and-forth movement of saidhousing means on said surface, said one-way means tending to prevent thedust within said receiver means from moving back towards said brush;said one-way means including a sloped wall portion formed on the bottomof said tray and extending upwardly in a direction away from said brush,said sloped wall terminating in a substantially vertical wall whichprojects downwardly to form an abutment which tends to prevent the dustfrom moving backwardly towards the brush after the dust has passed oversaid sloped wall, said vertical wall being located between said onesidewall and the middle of said tray as measured between the front andrear ends thereof; and hindering means associated with each of said dustreceiver means for preventing the dust deposited therein from movingbackwardly out of said dust receiver means so as to again contact saidrotating brush, said hindering means including a hindering memberpositioned over each tray and disposed above said sloped wall in thevicinity of said vertical wall, said hindering member having a pluralityof projections which extend downwardly toward the bottom of said traybut are spaced upwardly therefrom to prevent the dust collected withinsaid tray from moving back towards said brush, said projections beingspaced from one another in a direction extending transversely acrosssaid compartment, the spacing between said projections enabling dust tomove therebetween when deposited into said tray by said brush, whereuponthe dust as deposited into said tray then contacts the dust previouslycollected within said tray to form a larger mass which is of substantialtransverse width so that said larger mass of dust is prevented by saidprojections from moving backwardly toward the brush.
 2. A floor cleaneraccording to claim 1, further including first and seconD comb meansdisposed within said compartment and positioned for engagement with theperiphery of said brush for removing the dust therefrom, said first andsecond comb means being disposed on opposite sides of said brush andpositioned adjacent said one edge of said first and second dust receivermeans, respectively, the comb means associated with each dust receivermeans being positioned between said brush and the respective hinderingmember.
 3. A floor cleaner according to claim 2, wherein said comb meansassociated with the respective tray is spaced upwardly from the upperedge of said one sidewall whereby fine dust particles picked up by saidbrush will move over said one sidewall and beneath said comb means fordeposit into said tray, said comb means causing the fibrous dust to beremoved from the brush with said fibrous dust then being deposited intoone of said trays by passing over the top of one of said comb means. 4.A floor cleaner according to claim 1, wherein said hindering member isdisposed in substantial alignment with the upper edge of said slopedwall, and the lowermost point of said projections being spaced upwardlya relatively small distance above the upper edge of said sloped wall. 5.A floor cleaner according to claim 1, wherein said hindering membercomprises an elongated rodlike member which extends transversely acrossthe width of said compartment and has the opposite ends thereof mountedon said housing means, said rodlike member having an intermediateportion thereof provided with said plurality of projections thereon,said projections being of a large and upwardly opening V-shapedconfiguration whereby said projections point downwardly, saidprojections being formed in said rodlike hindering member by bendingsame.